In this issue:

Shedding light on retinoblastoma

Affecting approximately one in 18,000 children under the age of 5, retinoblastoma is the most common malignant ocular tumor in childhood. The disease can affect one eye, and in 20 percent to 30 percent of cases, it can affect both eyes.

“As long as the disease has not spread beyond the eye, cure can be achieved in more than 90 percent of children through enucleation – or surgical removal of the eye,” said Dr. Murali Chintagumpala, clinical director of Texas Children’s Cancer Center® brain tumor program and associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. “This is the usual treatment for children with unilateral disease (a single eye affected) because they often present with advanced disease with no hope for vision salvage.”

Chintagumpala says that one of the most difficult challenges of treating retinoblastoma is the presence of vitreous seeds – or pieces of tumor that have broken off from the original tumor and “float” in the eye. These vitreous seeds grow without a blood supply and are relatively inaccessible to chemotherapy agents.

Read more about retinoblastoma, including an innovative clinical trial completed at the Cancer Center.

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Twelve-year-old receives new lungs and heart at Texas Children's

The wait is over for 12-year-old Austin, a Pennsylvania resident who lived in an RV trailer park in Houston, Texas, for six months waiting for donor organs. Just a few weeks ago, he received a double-lung and heart transplant at Texas Children's Hospital. Doctors say his prognosis is good.

Dr. Dean McKenzie, surgical director of the heart and lung transplant programs at Texas Children's, transplanted the lungs and heart while Dr. Okan Elidemir, transplant pulmonologist, monitored the lung function during a four-hour surgery. McKenzie said Barber’s medical history – including a past heart-valve replacement and blood transfusions – posed a challenge in finding compatible organs.

“Normally we match organs based on blood type and size,” said McKenzie. “His immune system had already been sensitized by previous procedures, so we had to test donor organs for specific antigens and antibodies to prevent rejection.”

Austin was born with a heart defect and at six months of age was also found to have cystic fibrosis. Doctors felt he would not live more than a couple of years with such complex problems. Somehow he defied the odds, even though he has spent most of his life breathing with the use of an oxygen tank and has received nourishment through a feeding tube.

The boy was treated at a cystic fibrosis center in Oklahoma City, but doctors there felt his medical options were exhausted and nothing short of a lung and heart transplant could help him survive. They referred Austin to Texas Children's Hospital, one of only three centers in the United States that performs lung transplantation for children.

At Texas Children’s, pediatric pulmonologists and heart specialists placed Austin on a lung/heart transplant waiting list and joined forces in managing his medical care.

Texas Children's Pediatric Lung Transplant Program and Heart Transplant Program are among the largest pediatric transplantation programs in the country. Each service is certified by the United Network of Organ Sharing.

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Fetal surgeon discusses field with Panama media

Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, co-director of the Texas Center for Fetal Surgery®  recently met with a group of journalists visiting from Panama. Olutoye introduced the reporters to the Ex-utero Intrapartum Treatment (EXIT) and several other procedures. To date, the Texas Center for Fetal Surgery has performed 10 surgeries.

“These cases have shown normal development of the baby after birth,” said Olutoye. “These babies would not be alive today if it were not for the fact that they underwent surgery prior to their birth.”

The center has received several requests to provide second opinions on overseas cases. The visitors also toured the hospital, including Texas Children's Cancer Center and Texas Children's Newborn Center®.

Learn more about the Texas Center for Fetal Surgery.

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Education for health care professionals

Ongoing, free online continuing medical education
Presented by Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine
Topic: The Obesity Crisis: The Epidemic, The Consequences and The Solution by William J. Klish, M.D.
Topics: The Approach to the Child with Fever of Unknown Origin by Ralph D. Feigin, M.D., and Recent Guidelines for Antimicrobial Usage by Sheldon L. Kaplan, M.D.
To register, visit http://www.texaschildrens.org/Professionals/ProfessionalEducation/CME.aspx.

Presented by Baylor College of Medicine
Topic: A Challenge for the Pediatrician: The Adolescent Interview by Amy Middleman, M.D.
To register visit: http://www.baylorcme.org/adolescent/

Topic: Evaluation of the Child with the First Seizure by Marvin Fishman, M.D.
To register, visit: http://www.baylorcme.org/seizure/

Topic: Pediatric Assent and Confidentiality in Clinical Practice by Laurence B. McCullough, Ph.D., and Fernando Stein, M.D.
To register, visit: http://www.baylorcme.org/assent/
 

Nov. 9-11, 2006, 3rd International Pediatric Cardiac Nursing Symposium
Presented by Texas Children's Heart Center and held at the Hilton Hotel Americas-Houston, Texas.
For information, please visit http://www.texaschildrens.org/heartsymposium. 

Dec. 1-2, 2006, 10th Annual Texas Pediatric Emergency Medicine Conference
For information, please visit http://cme.bcm.tmc.edu/search/detail.cfm?cme=534.

April 9-14, 2007, Texas Children's International Colloquium
Mark your calendars now! More information to come in upcoming issues of International News.

Bookmark our professional education page to get regular updates to the Texas Children's professional education calendar.

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The largest pediatric hospital in the United States, Texas Children's is ranked among the top five children's hospitals by U.S. News & World Report and Child magazine. Texas Children's is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. To learn more about Texas Children's, visit www.texaschildrens.org.

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